nearing the end...i hope

Our new range came over the weekend thanks to Chip and Ann! Because they shlepped it from PA, I saved over $600 and it's an awesome 3-in 1 range which will save space too! We had to take the doors off the oven and the door to get it into the living room though. Lucky our closet system is now half moved to the other wall (Mike only moved his side first - we were a little taken by surprise by how early Chipper was) We just bought another pole from Ikea and will be ready to move mine next week sometime.

The red bedroom wall looks nice and not too dominating since it is behind the closet system The main part that is exposed is above the bed and it frames a big painting my Dad gave me a while ago. Altogether, I think it looks nice. Since we sleep facing away from it, we dont really have to face a red wall everyday but it creates a nice feature in the room. I also think it makes it look smaller which is a pity but of all rooms, this room can take it. The light from the window also hits it nicely in the evening and our bedside lamps also have a nice reflected glow off it.

We assembled all but 1 of the cabinets. The base cabinets are our priority since we want the counter guy to come on Friday before we leave for SF. He says he will take 7-10 days to be ready which will also give us time to put the rest of the cabinets together (innards and all). Mike hung the wall cabinets except 1 and spent quite a bit of time cursing at it although we did all this in one afternoon. It's amazing how much motivation one can get when one can see the end result. Unlike construction/demo work, it is instantly gratifying and encourages one to work harder.

This week, we went to Ikea with our tile sample to pick the colour of the counter which we think we have picked...it is quite agonising for us to do things like that. Mike and I are really poor visualisers and picking the tile colour, paint colour and cabinet colour was torture. I am torn between Pebble and Cinder.

San Fran this weekend and little by little next week, we will put the cabinets together. It's a good thing I am so busy at work, I hardly notice not having a kitchen to be honest. If this goes according to schedule then we should be completely done a few days after the Vu-Lees get back,

Mid week work

I threw on a coat of red paint in the bedroom and Mike did the second coat later in the week. Now we are ready to move the closet to the red wall side and free up the french doors that lead to the outside.

Our new range comes tomorrow so we will be ready for it.

We also grouted on Monday & Tuesday and the first day was a nightmare. We were cleaning the grout haze till 11pm and it just wouldnt get clean! On the 2nd day, we learned valuable lessons and had ready water and just knowing what was ahead, made us grout better. It only took us 2 hours the next day and the clean up was so much easier.

Tomorrow after moving the closet, Mike will seal the tile floor. Unfortunately I have to work at 6am but it will only be for a few hours.

This weekend is going to be all about assembling cabinets and hanging them. We are hoping for a visit from the counter guy next Thursday before we leave for SF for a wedding. If that happens, we will have a new counter by Tuesday and a full kitchen a few days after depending on the plumber (we get a free sink from the counter guy so once he gets in there to install the counter, he will have a sink for me)

I can't believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The Vu-Lees also pushed their return to Aug 7 so we are just in time!

Small change in plan

As we are thinking of getting a new range we will have to somehow get it inside the house. I might not have mentioned it before but the front door opens into the hallway and because there's a slight bend there it only opens about 60 degrees and most things cannot fit. When we moved it we used the double doors that lead straight into the bedroom (altho it was the living room then) but since then we have covered those doors with an Ikea modular closet.

In recent months, we have decided to move that modular closet to either side of the bed freeing up the french doors and maybe putting our desk there (which would be easier to move if a situation like this arose and also we are re-purposing our present study). All this was meant to be way down the line but the bringing in of the range might push that up since we have to disassemble the modular closet.

To make a long story longer, i have to paint the wall our bed rests against to prepare for the closet move (no point taking it down and putting it back up in a place we dont even want it at) it might as well go where it needs to go. But it cant go on just like that, we want to paint behind it.

hence today I ducked out to the store and bought more Mythic paint to paint. it's just one wall so it's not bad but it is a bit of a rush...

BIG milestone

This weekend was pretty big for us. We were going to tile the floor on Saturday and when we laid out the tile dry, we realised it was quite un-level and it started to worry us. So we called a friend Corey who had a few years of tiling experience (but he's a filmmaker) to come and help us and thank goodness we did, cos it looks amazing!

I posted the saga so far on FB. Tomorrow we are going to grout and hopefully after that we can start putting the cabinets in and actually begin regaining my kitchen!

Paint and more paint

We threw on 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of colour this weekend. It's nice light gray called Fading Frost and it's made by Mythic Paint which claims it has zero VOC and can even be used by pregnant women. There's hardly any smell and it costs $60 a can (which is 4 times the normal price) We figured it was a small kitchen and worth the money to not be inhaling fumes for the week.

In between, Mike levelled the subfloor (took forever) and then we had to lay down cement board and make the cuts for the floor. We were going to try and lay tile but it was getting on in the day and we still need another coat of colour so I think we will tile next weekend.

Mid-week this week, Serene and I will paint the 2nd coat so that we are ready come next weekend. It's coming together nicely and we're quite pleased with the results we have achieved so far. We also loaded the Ikea returns into the car and Serene and I will return the cabinets tomorrow and some Home Depot returns too. I estimate we will get about $500 back after we buy the additional cabinets we do need.

We also picked up a wet saw from the Art Director that I met on this new job I started. He had one lying around his studio and doesnt care when we return it. That's great 'cos knowing our schedule, it will be a while!

We also hit a small snag which delayed us. There is a window in the kitchen that was previously blocked by the 'fridge. Once we moved the fridge the window became exposed and today we realised (when we were painting) what bad shape it is in. We are sorta at a loss cos we dont think we have the skills to re-frame it and now wonder if we should delay the reno of the kitchen while we find someone who can.

So sometime this week, we will also get a window guy to come out and give us a quote on reframing and getting a new sill which I hope isnt too pricey. If it is, we might have to figure out another way or live with it. It's not horrible, just looks bad now that the rest of the kitchen looks nice.

I also took a look at the Ikea hood we bought it and doesnt look nice at all. As our oven sucks anyway, we will also have to buy a new oven and hood. All these 3 things need to be done before the counter gets put in so hence we didn't really rush the tiling since there's no real need. I will take care of these things this week and we can tile next week and assemble the rest of the cabinets at our leisure. It's a bit of a setback mentally and financially but we took a deep breath and decided not to stress about it. Once Ikea cabinets were returned there was no really rush I mean I have been sans kitchen for 3 months now. Even with tenants downstairs, I can live with it a few more weeks.

Happy 4th!

Mike & i spent the 4th of July...renovating, of course! In fact, a 3 day weekend was much needed for this phase of the renovation.

On Friday, we fixed all the sheetrock bits and pieces and installed the corner bead and basically prepped the wall for mudding. Then we went to Home Depot (ahh...our favourite place) and bought everything we needed to finish the job up until tiling. Or so we thought.

It took us 3 hours and a sketchy rig on the roof of the car (10 pieces of cement board) before we came back and then we went for dinner with some friends. It has been our style of renovation that our life really shouldnt intrude on it. Of course we are giving up a lot do this on weekends but if we want to see family and friends, we feel it is important to continue with a modicum of a social life.

On Saturday we started early (for us) at around 9am and mudded all day. It took forever because (a) we are amateurs and (b) we're amateurs. We were accompanied by the loudest music from the neighbours which was a little dispiriting because if we have a bbq anytime after our renovation we would have to deal with that godawful music/noise. It happens every Saturday but yesterday it went much later and louder. I'm glad the founding fathers fought so hard for our neighbours to give them the right to blast their music such that our walls were practically shaking.

At around 6pm, we ran out of joint compound and had to do an emergency run to HD. Just as well since we forgot a few other things anyway. This time, armed with a 5 gallon bucket, we mudded till about 10pm and let it dry overnight. As it is, we have about 1/4 of that left.

Several web videos advised different things so we decided to go with our instincts and sanded the next morning. It was dusty work, mostly Mike's doing. I did laundry and other household chores. It took him about 2 hours then we cleaned and re-mudded.

While the 2nd coat of mud was drying, we examined the floor to see how we could level the thing. Since we are expanding the kitchen slightly there is a great disparity in height between the kitchen and the parquet floor. We decided to lift up all the old subfloor and extend the plywood base. It also involved pulling up floorboards under the pantry. There has always been a slight sag in the floor just before the kitchen and we fixed that too (plywood was over a 2x4 that wasn't really connected to anything. We are cutting a new piece to bridge the 2 joists)

Now that our floor is essentially level (well more or less) next weekend we are putting down cement board and tiles. I will rent a wet saw this week and we are also going to do some midweek work - Mike is going to mud some areas a 3rd time (those that need it about half the work we've been doing) and we are going to take a crack at assembling some cabinets.

The only time stress I've had so far is Ikea. It's not the fact that my tenants come back on the 22nd July. It's the fact that my return date for these cabinets is 21 July. I know we have certain cabinets we definitely won't be using (cos we changed the design of the cabinets last minute and I added cabinets but did not take away the old ones) so I estimate about $700 of cabinets I wont be using. If we pass the date, I wont be able to return them and we would have burned that cost. So that stresses me out a little.

We figured since that's the only time crunch we have, let's at least take a look at these cabinets mid week (not impeding the normal weekend work) and see if there's anything damaged or missing or unnecessary. Once we lay down tile, we have a jump start on the assembling and next week mid week i can return the stuff. They delivered these cabinets almost 3 months ago! We havent even looked that them once!